


Damned and Forgotten

by CatHolmes



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Character Death, M/M, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-30
Updated: 2012-07-30
Packaged: 2017-11-11 02:26:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/473448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatHolmes/pseuds/CatHolmes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title: Damned and Forgotten<br/>Summary: AU from the end of First Class. Before the bombs drop, scientists have been steadily working and playing with mutation and their disastrous results are revealed to the world. Based on this prompt from the kink meme on LJ.<br/>Warning: Death fic <br/>Paring: Charles/Erik <br/>Author's Note: I could not figure out how to write this. What ended up helping was watching, of all thing, a documentary on the German people during WW2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Damned and Forgotten

The bodies litter the streets. The smell of blood and decay permeated the air, so thick, it filled the lungs of the living and left them gasping. For   
Erik, this grotesque display was nothing new. The smell of burning bodies a mere painful reminder of his time in the camps. Charles, his poor, sweet, innocent Charles, had a very different reaction to what was going on. For him, it was moiré than just the visual.

He could feel what was going on. He could hear the thoughts of those dying around him. What was worse, he could hear the mindless thoughts of the already dead. 

Those were the worst. Charles handled the thoughts of the living and dying well enough. The dead were a whole other matter entirely. Many a night, Charles would awake screaming in anguish. Erik dealt with it, refusing to allow anyone to help. Charles was his responsibility. The man had saved his life once. Was it not his job to save him now? 

It had started a year ago. Some days it felt as though it had been going on for years. 

Charles had been planning for the confrontation with Shaw and the armies with a feeling of dread and apprehension. He was not the type to send children for war. 

Erik also knew that Charles was fighting a battle within himself about what to do about Shaw. Charles laid in Erik’s bed, staring at the ceiling as if for looking for answers. 

“You can’t kill him,” Charles spoke at last. Erik said nothing. They had stopped arguing awhile ago, but Charles always had to have the last word. Erik would let him. It would change nothing. He pulled himself from his chair and laid down next to Charles, taking the younger man hand’s into his own. He felt their softness and strength. Whatever came next, he would have this moment of complete and utter peace. Charles looked at him, smiling slightly as his eyes began to slide shut. 

In the early morning hours, Erik awoke to shaking. Raven stood over him, yellow eyes filled with fear. 

“Erik, come quickly. It’s Charles… I’m not... something’s wrong.” 

Erik was out of bed in an instant and down the hall towards the library. He found Charles on his knees, staring out the window. 

“Charles, what is it? What’s wrong?” 

Charles looked up at Erik, and in that moment, Erik thought Charles wasn’t there. Charles finally blinked and focused on him. 

“They’re all dead,” he whispered. His voice turned Erik’s blood cold. 

“Can’t you hear them?” 

“Charles, what’re you talking about?” Raven asked. 

“Turn on the T.V.” Erik ordered, his gaze never wavering from Charles’s shaking form. 

On the television, a young news reporter read from the report, the fear evident in his eyes. 

“This just in from Chicago, there are reports of what can only be described as an explosion of unimaginable strength has torn through the city. While reports are sketchy, it is believed that the death toll is in the tens of thousands.” 

“Was it Shaw? Could he do something like this?” Raven asked.

Charles shook his head. “It wasn’t him. It was something else.” 

“What could possibly do that?” 

Charles fell forward then, retching and gasping. Erik suddenly felt useless. He could only stand there and watch his only friend he had ever known go through something he couldn’t even begin to comprehend. 

“Erik get him up. We need to get him somewhere quieter.” 

Erik silently agreed and pulled Charles into his arms, alarmed at how easily he allowed himself to be carried away. As Erik placed Charles in the bunker downstairs, he was struck by the sudden and terrifying thought that last night would be the last time he would ever see his friend smile. 

Days seemed to bleed into each other as more reports were released as to what had happened. Many of the citizens in Chicago were gone, most simply vanished without a trace. Religious fanatics suspected rapture, but Charles explained it to be something far more worse. Moira arrived a few days later and gave them what she had been able to glean from reports. There had been an experiment going on in one of the labs of Chicago on a mutant who supposedly was nearly indestructible. Scientists had thought they could use his genes to create a serum to make super soldiers. Their first and only test had failed. 

“The men in the lab… one minute they were fine, the next, they attacked everyone. They ate them,” Moira explained, “they escaped and began to infect people. It all happened so fast that the government only had one solution.” 

“They set off a bomb.” 

“They were hoping to keep it just in the city, and they succeeded, for the most part. But some may have made it out, those infected I mean.” 

“You didn’t just come here to tell us this,” Charles said quietly, “You have another reason.” 

“The state department knows about Cerebro. They want to help you build a new one. They hope that due to the fact that the infected have mutant DNA in them, you would be able to find them…” 

“No,” Erik’s anger echoed in the library so loud, Moira nearly jumped from her seat. 

“But…” 

“No. You people created this mess, you clean it up.” 

“Erik, I have to help them.” 

“No you don’t. Why on Earth should you?” 

“Because they’ll kill us if I don’t,” Charles looked into Moira’s eyes and for once, Erik was afraid of him. “That’s the deal isn’t it? If the mutant can’t find these people, then he’s just as much of a threat and needs to be eliminated.” 

“Charles, I’m sorry, I tried to explain to them...” 

“Tell them I’ll do it. But if they come near this place, or even so much as think of laying a hand on anyone here, they better pray for death from these creatures. It will be the less painful way to go.” 

They ended up taking what was left of the original Cerebro and fixing it, making a cruder version. They didn’t have enough time for anything else. Erik would’ve preferred to leave and never return, but he wouldn’t leave Charles behind. 

Charles did what he could, finding the infected and telling the military where they were, but the strain was beginning to show. After each session, Erik saw what had been Charles disappear, until one day, he didn’t recognize the man that stood before him. The minds of the infected had their toll on him and many nights, Erik would find him in the bathroom, vomiting up what little he managed to eat, or trying to stem the flow of blood coming from his nose. 

Despite his best efforts, the infected moved quickly. Eventually it became apparent that Charles wouldn’t be able to find all of them and Erik knew that when the military realized this, they would all be rounded up and killed. 

So he did the one thing he knew how to do; he ran. In the cover of night, he planned their escape. The kids, no, other mutants fought back and managed to get to the hanger where Hank’s plane was stored and took off. It would take the military awhile to find them. Besides, they had far more pressing concerns. 

The infected ravaged the Northern part of America, sending the country to its knees. People tried in vain to escape, getting on boats and planes, but other governments, in a panic, shot them down and kept them from their own countries. 

Somehow, they managed to flee to Italy. Erik for the most part, kept everyone going, or at least tried to. He didn’t have the skills to keep people hopeful like Charles did, and the younger man rarely spoke anymore. 

“If you stay inside your own head too long,” Erik said one evening, “you may never be able to escape.” 

Charles said nothing and instead, kept his eyes fixed on the outside. It was quiet here, but Erik suspected it wouldn’t stay like this. 

“Charles, I want you to show me what it’s like being inside the minds of those things.” Erik doubted Charles would agree, but even an argument would be better than what they had become. 

“Erik,” his first word in nearly a month, “you have seen untold horrors in your own life time. I know you were envious of my upbringing, my innocence. We now share another thing in common. Take what you’ve witnessed in your youth and you know what I’ve seen.” 

Eventually, the European governments couldn’t keep the tide at bay and the infected began to ravage their own country sides. This time, Erik didn’t run. He fought back, finding the infected weakness and obliterating them. He ended up saving a number of lives, but the title of hero tasted like ash in his mouth. 

He walked through abandoned towns, watched as the infected fed off the living. What could it possibly be like in their minds? Did they have any thoughts at all, or was it just a void? 

He began to rally any mutants he could find. He didn’t care about the normal humans, but that didn’t stop other mutants from saving them. Charles would’ve been proud. 

A year had gone by and Erik could feel something awful was going to come. They had been winning, so far, building small towns fortified with walls and barriers to keep the infected at bay. Charles had emerged from their small home, his eyes for once, alive. But that life seemed cruel, as if he was planning something. 

“Charles, what is it?” 

“He’s here.” 

A man was let inside the town and Erik felt his blood boil upon seeing Sebastian Shaw walking towards him. 

“I have to say Erik, you’ve made quite a name for yourself. Who would’ve thought you would’ve been the knight in shining armor to so many people.” 

Erik instinctively took a step forward, blocking Charles. While seeing Shaw brought back memories of his mother, of his pain and torture, he didn’t feel the urge to kill the man. Defend himself yes, and those around him, but killing this man just didn’t matter anymore. 

“Shaw, leave now.” 

“I had to see what the fuss was about. My greatest experiment saving these pathetic humans? Hard to believe to be honest.” 

“Shaw, you should leave now,” Charles voice was laced with so much malice, Erik almost didn’t believe it was him speaking. 

“Ah, the telepath. You’re certainly loyal aren’t you?” 

“I will give you to the count of three to leave this place.” 

Shaw’s smug look only wavered slightly. 

“Charles, what are you doing?” 

“One.” 

“Oh please, what could…” Shaw was suddenly lifted up into the air. 

“Two.” 

“Charles.” 

Charles stepped away from Erik and approached Shaw, observing him with a curious eye. 

“What exactly do you plan to do to me?” Shaw taunted.

“I’m giving you a gift. Three.” 

And with that, Shaw exploded. 

Erik couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. The man who had nearly destroyed him, who had crushed his soul, was nothing. 

Charles fell in front of him onto his knees, and then fully to the ground. 

“Charles!” 

Erik cradled Charles in his arms. The younger man looked up at him, blood leaking from his mouth, nose and eyes. 

“Charles, what on Earth possessed you to do that?” 

“I couldn’t stop all the horrors of the world. But I stopped one.”

Erik coughed weakly. 

“Charles, he wasn’t worth you killing yourself.” 

“I’ve been dead for awhile,” Charles explained, leaning into Erik’s chest, “I did this for you. You truly are the better man.” 

Erik held him then, feeling the man let out his last breath. 

“No Charles,” he whispered, “you were the better man, you simply had no choice.” 

As the sun faded, Erik felt the gentle touch of Charles’s mind, giving him one last gift, a smile and an utter sense of serenity. 

END


End file.
